30AC Wave 2 - The Battle of Yavin

[Jesse James]

I honestly don't know if I got mine or not then...  I checked out.  Dunno if it is coming now though or not.

[Dressel Rebel]

I honestly don't know if I got mine or not then...  I checked out.  Dunno if it is coming now though or not.

As long as you checked out, paid, and got your order number, you got it.

What Ruiner is referring to is having it in your cart, and continuing to shop before he checked out, and it was gone before he paid.

[David]

I just got my first taste of Wave 2 figures here tonight...  Someone pilferred all Luke, Han, and McFigures that were there, and left 1 of a couple figures and 2 of the Rebel.

I got:

-Biggs...  Biggs' name = Biggsest **** of the wave.  The Dutch Vander body is hardly "definitive" of any Rebel Pilot figure.  It's oversized, underarticulated, and while it's cool to say "Dutch" was just a tall guy, it looks like poodoo with just other heads slapped on it.  I pray Hasbro gives us a super articulated pilot body that's better in the near future.

Add to this that the helmet's paintjob is utter shite and it doesn't fit perfectly (not horribly, just not perfectly either), and I just am overall underwhelmed by Biggs.  He's basically winding up as nothing more than "fine, that'll do I guess" in my mind.  Easily the worst figure of the entire wave and I don't have 3 of them yet in-hand, but know my opinion isn't going anywhere on that one. 

I think youre being kind of mean to Biggs, and this may be one of the rare times where I disagree with JJ, but I think hes moreof an improvement over his POTF2 than DST is over his POTF2. The articulation, wide legs, and huge helmet are just too distracting to make DST awesome. He is good, but not awesome. Biggs is at least somewhere in between.

[Ryan]

I'm with Jesse on the DST's articulation/sculpt gripe. The articulation isn't to blame for the awkwardness of the joints. The blame lies squarely with the sculpt not hiding it better. Hasbro has proved on many occasions they are more than capable of this, so it the articulation really isn't an excuse. Wide legs are also a minor gripe since it is such an easy fix. And the helmet isn't that bad actually. I felt the POTF2 helmet was underscaled and that this one is a bit closer to the actual size. My opinion on the height does differ from yours Jesse. I personally don't mind it since this is a generic figure. It is easier to shorten him than make him taller and it adds some variety to the ranks. Being a taller guy myself, at 6'4" it is nice to see some taller figures that aren't Darth Vader or Wookiees.

Biggs however I also have to mostly agree with Jesse on. The height just doesn't match his character, so he looks a little out of place. I think the headsculpt looks great. I do wish the helmet paint matched better as well. I have yet to open mine so I can't comment on the fit.I differ from Jesse in that I still do prefer this body over the original, preposed arms and height be damned. The sculpt is much better IMO and the color seems to be much closer (not that the color couldn't be fixed on the POTF2 sculpt) I would really like to see the ultimate SA X-Wing pilot sculpt at some point soon, but for now this will be a decent filler for me, decent, not great by any stretch.

[Darth_Anton]

JJ- thought I'd show my boil-and-freeze attempt on the RHG and DST, as well as my DST vintage-style custom.  I've used the BAF technique quite a bit lately (thanks for the idea!) but I've found that limbs rebound after a while by perhaps 50%.  Does that happen to you guys too?  I had the RHG's kness touching when I froze him, but he's back to what you see in the pic (which is fine).

I've been having the same rebounding issues. Anyone know better techniques?

[Jesse James]

I tend to, at least attempt to, "over do it" with the boil & freeze, so that when they rebound that little bit, they go to where I wanted them.  nothing drastic, just a little bit, but I've found it works.

I B&F'd all my Rep. Commandoes for instance, as I can't get anyone but Scorch to stand.  They look great now though, very well stanced, and don't tip easily.  It was one of the most complex B&F's ever though as I had to squeeze the legs and at the same time pose the feet.  A real pain.  I'd say Cody, and his gummy counterpart, were equally frustrating B&F's.

Cody rebounded some but he looks good yet.  I'll maybe snap some photos at some point and see if I can show them off here to see what I did. 

I will say I use a stand frequently when B&F'ing so that the feet are flat and just as I want them.  Make sure you get 'em really boiled up good though, and you freeze them for a while even if it's sorta painful to your hand.  Utilize clamps, rubber bands, and other things well too, and act fast.  Best advice I can give.

[Brian]

It looks like McQuarrie Fett is back in stock at HTS - hurry .

[ruiner]

Finally.

[Paul]

Missed it again.   I had 2 in my cart yesterday and could not get past the "Proceed to Checkout" button....I was on FIOS...so it wasn't my connection.  They had 280 when I bought mine, so they weren't out of them yet either.

Must have been all those "Kids" that collect...with credit cards....crashing the site during school hours..couldn't be the collectors...

Pretty Irritating.

[Morgbug]

I know it's not wave 2, but the McTrooper is still there as of writing this. 

HTS has been helpful to me, but I still largely consider them to be a joke.  Sure, it's good that they don't have an absolutely unlimited supply of the figure but why can't they?  Oh right, it would affect regular retail market stores.  Still, I always chuckle at the notion of them always being out of the cool figures.  Even the damn manufacturer can't keep them in stock.  I console myself with the thought that they'll have C-3POs in stock until the turn of the next century.

[ruiner]

McTrooper is gone.

The hoopla around these McQuarrie figures is amazing - everybody wants them, from the casual collector to the completist.

I wonder if Hasbro has been taken by surprise...

[Jayson]

McTrooper is gone.

The hoopla around these McQuarrie figures is amazing - everybody wants them, from the casual collector to the completist.

I wonder if Hasbro has been taken by surprise...

Hmmm... make an all new figure, put it in packaging that sets it apart from others in the line, (which seduces scalpers and hoarders) and have 1x or 2x per case?

I doubt they're surprised. 

[Morgbug]

Maybe it's my overwhelming cynicism, but I'd bet they actually are surprised by the demand.  It's a subline and to me the packaging isn't all that different in terms of general appearance.  Same card shape and graphics; coin is there, figure is there.  Cardback is different (on US cards anyway) but that's not so obvious. 

It's almost EU in the sense that it's not movie canon, though it is the basis for what we eventually got. 

My opinion is that they're as surprised by the demand as anyone. 

[Jayson]

Same card shape and graphics; coin is there, figure is there.  Cardback is different (on US cards anyway) but that's not so obvious. 

True, but I think it's the blue accents that's the attention graber which draws the unscrupulous and collector-types alike. So, I rank these on the same level as last year's UGH and this year's uber-UGH gold coin chases. Hasbro must be cognizant of that...

It's almost EU in the sense that it's not movie canon, though it is the basis for what we eventually got.

Pre-canon... 

[CHEWIE]

I'm not surprised by the demand for them to be honest.  Just look how sought after the first version of the McQuarrie Stormie was... the concepts just scream Original Trilogy and have such a vintage feel to them because of the exceptional designs that McQuarrie came up with, and then you also have a lot of people that want them for other reasons like to customize then.  I just love these figures, by far my favorite so far this year.